@bopanc's Threads

The German government on Wednesday nearly halved its 2019 economic growth forecast from 1.8% to 1%, citing #Brexit as the first among key reasons for the slowdown. The shock of no-deal Brexit is widely expected to cause a recession here and elsewhere.

The German minister for econ affairs @peteraltmaier said today that it is not really possible to prepare for a no-deal #Brexit in some sectors, also due to currency fluctuations etc

So the idea that the #EU is united in some sort of stoic view on no-deal #Brexit as highly manageable is not correct. In fact Chancellor #Merkel has spoken to Ireland's Varadkar about his intentions. Top politicians/officials here say it would be good if Ireland would reconsider

On a rainy morning in a cemetery last month, Berlin’s hidden underworld briefly emerged from the shadows. It was the funeral of a gang enforcer who got shot eight times as he took his wife and children for a stroll in a popular park. @WSJwsj.com/articles/ethni…

His funeral drew nearly 2,000 mourners from across the country. Scores of police officers watched as bearded, beefy men in tracksuits and crew cuts filed by. Older men were ferried to the graveside in luxury cars with dark-tinted windows. @WSJwsj.com/articles/ethni…

Six months before #Brexit, nobody knows how it will happen. “We’re in a bit of a dangerous position,” said Nick Timothy, May's former chief of staff. “It feels like absolutely anything is possible, from staying in after all to departure without a deal..." wsj.com/articles/there…

A no-deal #Brexit deal means serious immediate economic disruption with ports clogging with trucks awaiting customs clearance. The UK is unprepared, but #EU countries too are uniformly unready for a no-deal exit, a recent “stress test” of the members found wsj.com/articles/there…

Bannon wants to unite Europe's rightwing populists/far-Right & nationalist groups into coherent political force. He's setting up a foundation, which he compares to @georgesoros network, to help them with funding. But he'll only have up to 10 employees & no serious cash.

Europe's rightwing populists have tried to unite before, notably in the @Europarl_EN, but not with great success, bc their policies pose a structural problem for a pan-European movement. Often their debates descended into insult-laden quarrels.

My dispatch from #Sweden, which is experiencing an unprecedented surge in shootings, bombings and sexual crime. The crisis is mainly restricted to areas predominantly populated by immigrants, so ordinary Swedes read the news with disbelief: thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/…

In #Sweden, a country of 10m people, more than 320 shootings and dozens of bombings were reported in 2017, along with more than 110 murders and 7,226 rapes — a 10% increase on 2016. More than 36% of young Swedish women say they feel unsafe at night. thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/…

I visited some of the worst areas, including #Malmö's #Rosengård, where children as young as 14 roam the streets with Kalashnikovs & bulletproof vests. The average age of gang members is 22, the vast majority of them hailing from migrant families. thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/…